When you oppose the nation's best faceoff man and scoring offense, there's probably just one way to pull off a victory. The No. 5 ranked Yale men's lacrosse team had the right plan and followed it down to a T while registering a 14-6 thrashing of No. 2 Albany before a standing-room-only crowd at Reese Stadium this afternoon. The Bulldogs (11-2, 5-0 Ivy), who have won 4 straight, knew they had to be at least even on the X and get off a good start to have a chance to beat the Great Danes (11-2), ranked No. 1 by the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Committee last week. Enter Conor Mackie, Yale's senior FOGO, whose win percentage was dwarfed by the nation's leader, Albany's TD Ierlan (.840). Mackie won 3 of the first 5 faceoffs and helped his squad jump out to a 3-0 lead, and the Elis never relinquished the advantage on the way to a program-defining win against a team that had won the last 3 meetings, each by a goal. Yale's FOGO won 13 of 21 battles while allowing the Blue to dominate in shots (49-29) and ground balls (41-15). "Conor Mackie was awesome at the X," said Yale Head Coach Andy Shay. "He knew about the challenge and stuck to his fundamentals and details, and he was great. I'm very proud of his performance. He answered the bell today." Winning at the X does not always lead to victory. You must finish shots and make some stops on the other end of the field. The Ivy League Champions had that in their plan as well on a sun-splashed day before a national TV audience. The finishers were Ben Reeves, Matt Gaudet and Lucas Cotler, each with 3 goals, and John Daniggelis with a pair. They helped the Bulldogs break open a 7-5 game in the third quarter with 6 straight tallies against JD Colarusso, the nation's leader in save percentage and goals against. Reeves, who had 4 points and called this game "a challenge every step of the way," now has a team-high 38 goals and 71 points. The senior from Macedon, N.Y., broke through 3 stick checks to notch Yale's third goal and then went left-to-right running through more stick checks to help the Elis go up 6-2 in the second. Gaudet, the sophomore attackman from Ontario who had a school-freshman record 32 goals in 2017, showcased his skills in traffic at the most opportune times. He scored off a Reeves pass a few yards from the crease and hit the net from heavy stick defense to end the scoring in the first. Gaudet won a ground ball after an Albany save and flicked home a shot to give the Blue a 10-5 lead in the third. "Our guys were able to withstand the rush in the third quarter and settled in and kept grinding," said Shay, in his 15th season at Yale. Many of the stops from the Yale defense came from seniors Christopher Keating and Jerry O'Connor, sophomore Aidan Hynes and freshman Chris Fake. Keating, an All-American leads all starters in ground balls, had 7 pickups. Fake, who typically gets the assignment of the biggest offensive threat, caused 4 turnovers while displaying veteran skills and tenacity. He was on All-American Connor Fields (1 assist) until the senior left the game with an injury. Fake switched to the nation's top recruit in Tehok Nanticoke, who did not register a point in Albany's lowest scoring game of the year. "Fake was awesome today," said Shay. "He's only a freshman. He doesn't care how big the name is in front of him. He just goes out and does his thing." BULLDOG BITES Jackson Morrill, Jack Tigh and Jason Alessi had Yale's other goals today… Rookie Jack Starr made 10 saves to earn his 10th collegiate win in net… Yale was perfect on 15 clears while holding UA to 13 clears on 18 attempts… The Elis held Albany to one goal in the first and fourth quarters. UP NEXT Yale hosts Harvard this Saturday at noon in a game airing live on ESPNU. Yale is looking for a sixth Ivy League win and its first perfect league season in 60 years.